Merleau-Ponty on Beauvoirs Literary-Philosophical Method :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Merleau-Ponty on Beauvoirs Literary-Philosophical MethodABSTRACT Modern philosophy from the mid-nineteenth century on, has been in accompaniment interested in choosing, adapting, and in some cases inventing literary comprises to fit the portionicular philosophic subject under investigation. Sim sensation de Beauvoir, with her explicit rejection of any formalist office among literature and philosophy, is one of the just about interesting contributors to the modern development of philosophical writing. The waters surrounding de Beauvoirs contribution to philosophical method ar somewhat muddled because the literary forms she used innovatively for philosophy the novel and the scam story have (unlike, for example, the literary forms of Wittgenstein) resulted in writing which has been chiefly value largely in terms of literature. In fact, many of her compositions rest simultaneously in both the categories of literature and philosophy. The significance of this aspect of her wor k was accept by some of her contemporary philosophical associates, most particularly Merleau-Ponty. This motif draws on Merleau-Ponty to explore the philosophical ideas which inspired de Beauvoirs methodology, and considers the nature and ramifications of her originality in terms of philosophys tradition of methodological diversity. 1. Philosophys Literary FormsIn this paper we want to examine a category error in which her fiction and philosophy are treated as mutually undivided and separate categories. The underlying problem at work in impart to this mistake is that of the conflation of a writerly form with the type of subject matter turn to by it. Falling into this confusion is particularly misleading for readers of Simone de Beauvoir because one of the most significant and fascinating aspects of her methodology lies in her explicit rejection of any formalist division between literature and philosophy. This is an intriguing aspect of her work which places it in an honest and innovative philosophical position. It is not often enough noted that one part of the Western philosophical tradition a part which is peculiarly admirable is the diversity of writerly forms which have proved useful to its major(ip) practitioners. The dialogues of Plato and Hume, the fables of the prescience philosophers, the dramatic narratives of Kierkegaard, the parables and aphorisms of Nietzsche, as well as the essays of Kant and Sartre are all part of that heritage. Equally, the mathematicians paper used by Tarski and Russell, and the scientific paper adapted and make so fashionable by the logical positivists, and that strange literary form devised by Wittgenstein, so eccentric that it apparently remains without a disclose and yet has its antecedent in Spinozas Ethics, all form part of the major lineage of ways in which philosophy has been successfully written.